Texas hires Xavier's Sean Miller, the coach who beat the Longhorns in the NCAA Tournament
Texas has hired Xavier’s Sean Miller to take over the Longhorns basketball program
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas hired Xavier's Sean Miller to take over the Longhorns basketball program on Monday, turning to the coach who had just knocked them out of the NCAA Tournament a few days earlier in an attempt to spark a program that struggled in its first season in the Southeastern Conference.
The announcement comes a day after Texas fired Rodney Terry, and less than a week after Miller and Xavier knocked the Longhorns out of March Madness in a First Four game. Xavier was beaten in the next round by Illinois.
Texas planned an introductory news conference with Miller on Tuesday. Contract terms were not immediately disclosed.
For the 56-year-old Miller, it's the second time he is leaving Xavier, a Catholic school in Cincinnati that plays in the Big East, for a bigger program.
He coached the Musketeers from 2004-09 before leaving for Arizona. He then returned to Xavier in 2022 after he was fired.
Miller's teams made the NCAA Tournament 13 times with four trips to the Elite Eight. He is 487-196 overall in 20 seasons.
“He’s without a doubt the perfect choice to lead our men’s basketball program," said Kevin Eltife, chairman of the University of Texas System Board of Regents. “When you watched his teams at Arizona and Xavier, they were extremely well-coached, won at the highest level, made deep runs in the NCAA Tournament, and played a fun and exciting brand of basketball.”
Miller inherits a Texas program looking to find its footing in the SEC, college basketball's dominant league this season. Texas finished 14th in the 16-team conference and barely scraped its way into the NCAA Tournament before its early exit.
Texas gets a coach with a history of success at mid-major and power conference programs, who also was implicated and later cleared in an NCAA investigation into Arizona.
Miller went 120-47 in his first stint at Xavier, leading the Musketeers to the NCAA Tournament his final four seasons before being hired at Arizona. He won 302 games and five Pac-12 regular-season titles in 12 years with the Wildcats, but the program found itself in the NCAA’s crosshairs after being ensnared in a 2017 FBI investigation into corruption in college basketball.
The NCAA uncovered recruiting violations and academic misconduct, and Arizona self-imposed a postseason ban for 2020-21.
Miller was fired after that season, but escaped sanctions in 2022 in a report by the Independent Accountability Resolution Process that was set up to handle complex cases. Two of his former assistants were penalized.
He returned to Xavier, where he went 65-40 with two NCAA Tournament appearances. The Musketeers went 22-12 this season.
“When we were considering our next head coach, Sean Miller was a name that immediately came up as a perfect fit for us," Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said. "He certainly checks all the boxes, is exactly what we’re looking for in every facet as a leader, and in talking with him, he has a great plan and vision for our program.”
Terry was a Texas assistant when he took over the team in midseason in December 2022 after former coach Chris Beard was arrested on domestic violence charges and later fired. Terry led the Longhorns to the Elite Eight, their deepest tournament run since 2008, and was given a five-year, $15.3 million contract.
But Terry struggled to match that success and Texas’ first season in the SEC was a dud. The Longhorns went 6-12 in league play despite having conference freshman of the year Tre Johnson, who is expected to enter the NBA draft.
The charges against Beard were dropped shortly after he was fired at Texas. He was hired at Mississippi and has the Rebels in the Sweet 16 for just the second time in school history.
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